Sipan Olah is a London-based award-winning opera singer (tenor), conductor, pianist, theorist and producer. He graduated from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (Armenia), being awarded an MA degree with honours. Sipan further developed his conducting techniques with professor Davit Ghazaryan (Yerevan). He also perfected his singing with bass Barsegh Tumanyan (Yerevan) and tenor Philip Doghan at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
In 2003, Sipan received a scholarship from the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation (which supports highly talented young musicians). In 2007, he won the Gold Medal in the Republic of Armenia Arts Festival. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a tenor vocalist and conductor with the State Vocal Quartet of the Armenian Ministry of Culture. From 2011 to 2013, Sipan was a member of the London Philharmonic Choir, performing at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall. From 2013 to 2016, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Tekeyan Cultural Association. In 2014, he was awarded the Komitas Medal by the Music Union of Armenia. Based in London, the Klingen Choir and Cultural Association was founded by Sipan Olah in 2013 which currently has planned concert and events until 2020.
Over the years, Sipan has conducted choir parts from Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s The Creation, and Bruckner’s Te Deum, Holy liturgy by Komitas and Yekmalyan. Sipan’s solo singing performances in Armenia, Austria, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Malta and the UK have been highly appreciated by both the general public and the media.
Of particular note are his operatic roles including Jupiter from Handel’s Semele, Grimaldo from Handel’s Rodelinda, Don Ottavio from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Tomino from Mozart’s The Magic flute, Belmonte from Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Count Almaviva from Rossini’s The Barbiere of Sevil and Saro from Tigranyan’s Anush.
He had a recital in Ealing Town Hall, London in 2016, and went on a concert touring year in the Republic of Malta where he performed in 40 concerts and 3 operas. In 2019 he has performed in Westminster’s St John’s Smith Square as a conductor and a solo singer, has had a vocal recital in St Cuthbert’s church and has organised a concert of Armenian & Russian songs dedicated to Hovhannes Tumanyan’s 150th birth anniversary as well a concert-exhibition in London “Multinational tribute to Komitas” dedicated to Komits’s 150th birth anniversary. In 2014 Sipan Olah was the first conductor to present Armenian pieces by Komitas to the Welsh audience with his choir, followed by another similar concert in 2018 organised by the Arts Council of Malta, this time conducting a Maltese choir which presented Armenian choir pieces by Komitas to the Maltese audience for the first time.
In 2021 Sipan founded Klingen Chamber Orchestra, organised a concert “Multinational tribute to Al.Spendiaryan and A.Babajanyan” and performed pieces by both composers for the first time in the UK and Austria.
His principal concert repertoire comprises a wide variety of pieces, ranging from Middle-age troubadour songs, Baroque arias and ariettas, arias and songs from the Classical and Romantic periods to contemporary pieces in different languages by numerous composers.